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Hoes & Spades

After visiting Kansas City for the Honest Farmette's family reunion this weekend, I was looking forward to knocking out the rest of the weeds in the strawberry patch. My Uncle was one step ahead of me, and called for another weeding party. This one featured hoes and spades. I wielded one of the latter for the first time, quite efficiently if I do say so myself. Together we got it all down to three aisles by eight. After breakfast the task was continued, and at noon, the field was weed free. Hooooooooray!

At its worst, it took 2.5 hours to go through a row. Now, with a hoe, it takes 30-45 minutes for a row and aisle together. Four rows a day is the new goal, and that'll put me through the field in 6 days. I think that sounds easy now.

A New Hoep

I had a weed party in my strawberry field on the 5th at 6 am, and seven of the best people I know showed up. We had two hoeing the aisles and six in the rows, pulling by hand. Most just needed a quick tug, but one of the grasses was particularly challenging and required a spade. At one point I joked that the vining morning glory almost made it fun. It was a joke, and only an almost, because it was not fun at all. It was however extremely satisfying to see the field weeded and back within optimal hoe effectiveness. Also encouraging were the high number of runners each of the plants gave off. A few of the most impressive ran a few feet with two rooted nodes and a third stepping out. The party concluded with strawberries from the everbearing rows.

Weeds

They're a menace.

How Sweet Corn You Be?

The Honest Farmette and I helped pick sweet corn this morning for my Uncle. It is delicious, but the bugs made meals of us while we were out there.

My popeye arms have returned to normal after two days of swelling. I went in the hives on Saturday day, despite Friday night's incident, and marked both of my queens with green nail polish. It's not the recommended marker, but it works. In the process, I got some on one queen's wing which may ultimately prove to be fatal, should the worker bees not approve. They may supersede her, and once the new queen is born and mated, they'll simply stop feeding the old one. I'll go in the hives again next week to see if this is the case.

Also nearly had my hands on another wild swarm, but I was told about it while at an art auction and it had moved on before I got to it. Those are the breaks.

Hoe Could I Bee So Foolish!?

The weeds are too big now to effectively hoe without causing collateral to the strawberry plants and their runners so I have to hand weed the rows. The Hoerse still does wonders in the aisles.

A friend is visiting this weekend, and last night I was excited to show her my bees. We went over to the hives, had our head gear on, she stood a few feet back. The lid was sealed with propolis, a sealant created by the bees from tree sap. I tried to pop the top off, but sliced my thumb in the process.

I may have bummed the hive as well, but it could just be that it was already too late in the day to go into the hive. In any event, as soon as I lifted the cover--as soon as I lifted, not even an inch high--a score of bees flew on me stinging my shirt, my arms, and my hat. I took four in the arms, and three on my back through my shirt.

I closed the lid quickly and, with the bees still trying to get me, buzzing angrily much too close to my ears, we retreated to some trees. Bees get confused when you stand under trees so they leave you alone.

The stings didn't hurt so bad, just like pin pricks. But over the next three hours I started to itch in strange places. The palms of my hands. My scalp. My toes. My forearms started to swell, and I had red blotchiness under my armpits on my arm and chest. The redness spread a across my chest and down before I went to sleep.

Now it's the morning. Everything is fine except my forearms, which are still swollen. I'm not sure why they're still like this. Maybe because the blood isn't circulating the venom out. They're just really sore. We'll see how things go. I'm going back in the hive, today. During the day. When it's sunny out. I've learned that lesson. But I had been wondering what a bad beekeeping experience would be like, and that was clearly it. Lessons learned. Curiosity satiated. I hope this never happens again, because it is really not enjoyable at all.

Hoersing Around

The past two days I hit the garden and the field with the Hoerse. Thousands of weeds fell before me and my steed. They'll remember. The massacre on the tilling fields.